Slide 1

Spectral Properties of Superflare Stars, KIC 9766237, and KIC 9944137 Daisaku Nogami (Kyoto University) 2014/01/23(Thu)Subaru User's Meeting 2013@NAOJ Collaborators: K. Shibata, H. Maehara, S. Honda, T. Shibayama, S. Notsu, Y. Notsu, T. Nagao, H. Isobe, A. Hillier, A. Choudhuri, T. Ishii Slide 2 Solar flares Most energetic explosions on the surface of the Sun H, X-ray emission, radio, etc Time scale : minutes hours Release of the magnetic energy stored around the sunspot Total energy ~ 10 29 - 10 32 erg 2 Hinode / ISAS Soft X-ray (1keV) H 10,000K Hida Obs./Kyoto Univ. Slide 3 Earth Sun Ejected coronal masses and blast waves propagate through the interplanetary space. effects on the terrestrial environment Slide 4 Carrington flare (1859, Sep 1, am 11:18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 The first flare that human beings observed by Richard Carrington (England) white flare for 5 minutes Very bright aurora appeared next day morning at many places on Earth, e.g. Cuba, the Bahamas, Jamaica, El Salvador, and Hawaii. E~factor x 10^32 erg Largest magnetic storm (> 1000 nT) in recent 200 yrs. Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases even shocking telegraph operators. Telegraph pylons threw sparks and telegraph paper spontaneously caught Fire Loomis 1861 Slide 5 http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/pub/ste-nl/Newsletter28.pdf The magnetic storm on 1989 March 13 lead to Quebeck blackout Magnetic storm ~ 540 nT Solar flare X4.6 Slide 6 If the Carrington-class flare occur now, what will happen? Troubles of all satellites? whole earth blackout? Long-time communication stop? For those interested in this, see http://science.nasa.gov/science- news/science-at- nasa/2008/06may_carringtonflare/ Slide 7 superflare nanoflare microflare solar flare statistics of occurrence frequency of solar flares, microflares, nanoflares 1000 in 1 year 100 in 1 year 10 in 1 year 1 in 1 year 1 in 10 year 1 in 100 year 1 in 1000 year 1 in 10000 year C M X X10 X1000 X100000 Superflare? Largest solar flare [erg] dN/dE~E^(-1.5~-1.7) Total Energy [erg] Frequency Slide 8 Will superflares occur on our Sun? Slide 9 Stellar flares Young stars and close binary stars are known to produce superflares, 10- 10 6 times more energetic (10 33 - 10 38 erg) than the largest solar flares (~10 32 erg). Such stars rotate fast (10 -100 km s -1 ) and the magnetic fields of a few kG are distributed in large regions on the stellar surface. In contrast, the Sun slowly rotates (~2 km s -1 ) and sparsely has very small spots. Superflares cannot occur on Sun-like stars ?? 9 (Pallavicini et al. 1981 fast Slow Slide 10 Discovery of superflares on ordinary solar type stars Schaefer, B. E., King, J. R., Deliyannis, C. P. ApJ, 529, 1026 (2000) 9 superflares (with energy 10 ~ 10^6 times that of largest solar flares) were discovered Main sequence stars with spectral type F8-G8 Rotational speeds are low (like our Sun), not young stars Slide 11 superflares Shaefer et al. (2000) ApJ 529, 1026 Only 9 events. Too few to discuss statistics Schaefer argued that superflares would not occur on our Sun because there are no historical records in recent 2000 years and there are no hot Jupiters on our Sun. Are superflares really occurring on single solar type stars ? Slide 12 Observations of the Sun for 10,000 years are similar to Observations of 10,000 solar-type stars for one year. Slide 13 Kepler spacecraft Space mission to detect exoplanets by observing transit of exoplanets 0.95 m telescope Observing 150,000 stars continuously in a fixed region. ~30 min time cadence (public data) and a very high precision ( Energy-frequency distribution Power-law distribution with the index of -2.3+/- 0.3 The frequency distribution is similar to that of solar flares. All G-dwarfs T eff : 5100-6000K Sun-like stars T eff : 5600-6000K Period: >10 days 1 in 5000 years 1 in 800 years Slide 19 superflare nanoflare microflare solar flare Comparison of statistics between solar flares/microflares and superflares Largest solar flare Slide 20 superflare nanoflare microflare solar flare Comparison of statistics between solar flares/microflares and superflares 1000 in 1 year 100 in 1 year 10 in 1 year 1 in 1 year 1 in 10 year 1 in 100 year 1 in 1000 year 1 in 10000 year C M X X10 X1000 X100000 Largest solar flare Shibayama et al. (2013) Slide 21 Spectroscopy of superflare stars with Subaru Is there really a superflare star which is very similar to the Sun? We have been currently undergoing a follow-up project of high dispersion spectroscopy of the superflare stars with the Subaru telescope, for checking the rotation velocity, binarity, chemical composition, and so on. We have observed about 50 superflare stars with Subaru/HDS in S11B (service mode), S12A, and S13A. The result of the first pilot observation in S11B was already published by Notsu et al. (2013, PASJ, 65, 112). Slide 22 We have discovered two superflare stars really similar to the Sun! (Nogami et al. 2014, submitted to PASJ) Slide 23 StarProt [day] KIC976623721.8 KIC994413725.3 The total energy emitted during these superflares in these figures were ~10^34 erg. Slide 24 The absorption line of H is slightly shallower than that of 18 Sco, a solar-twin star. high chromospheric activity! Slide 25 The absorption line of Ca II 8542 is slightly shallower than that of 18 Sco, a solar-twin star. high chromospheric activity, and average magnetic field of 1-20 G Slide 26 The profile of photospheric absorption lines of Fe I is well reproduced with a single Gaussian function. No hint of binarity! v sini ~2.0 km/s Not young! Slide 27 The inclination angle of both targets is fairy high. Slide 28 Low Li abundance of both of the targets (A(Li)